Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1887-02-03
JEFFERsoN's TOMB.
The Shaft Erected Over the Statesmsa's
Grave Mutilated by Relic-Hunters.

The Shaft Erected over the Statesmaab
Grave Mutilated by Relic-Hunters.
Colonel Wilson, of the army, who
has charge of the monument recently
erected by order of Congress over the
grave of Thomas jefferson, at Month
cello, says that the vandals are already
at work chipping chunks off the stone,
and that If it is to be preserved mill
tary guard will have to be sent down
there. Several years ago Congress ap-
propriated $1,000 for the purpose of re-
storing the cemetery in which Jefferson
is buried, and erecting new monu-
ment over his grave This was in the
time of Hayes and the appropriation
was not to be available until the own
ers of the estate gave a quit-claim to
the United States of tract OF ground
two rods square surrounding the burial
place, and pathway by which access
thereto might be afforded the public.
Jefferson was buried at Monticello
in little cemetery on his own
plantation, and his wife, other
members of his family. and some of his
old servants lie beside him. When the
estate was being laid out at the time he
was President, Jefferson wrote to his
overseer instructing him to set apart "
little plot of ground as burial place.
"ChoOse some unfrequented vale in the
park" he said, "where there is no
sound to break the stiffness but the bab-
bling of brook that winds among the
woods, where no mark of human shape
is, unless it be the skeleton of some
poor wretch who sought out the spot to
despair and die in. Let it be among
the venerable oaks. Intersperse some
gloomy evergreens. Appropriate one
half of it for my family and the
rest for my servants and strangers
who may die in the neighborhood. Let
the exit look upon the Blue Mountains" "
The first stone that was erected over
Jeffersons grave was an exact copy of
diagram he left, and the epitaph was
as he wrote it. 1t was clipped to pieces
by relic hunters. A second one, and u
fac-simile, was substituted in 1851 of
the same material, which he thought no
one would be tempted to destroy, be-
cause of its great value, but during the
war the soldiers camping in that neigh
borhood carried it off piecemeal,
until nothing was left but sandstone
stump. The wall around the little
cemetery was destroyed and the whole
| plantation was in state of dilapida-
ton. Then Congress ordered it to be
restored, and, although the bill passed
in 1873, it was not until 1885 that the
Secretary of State was able to get II
title to the cemetery. The Secretary,
a wish to comply with his famous
predecessors instructions, repudiated
Mr.. Jetferson's model and material,
and instead of a shaft six feet high
of the sandstone found on the
place, has given him a shaft eighteen
feet high of granite. The work was
only recently finished, and Colonel
Wilson, who went down to inspect it,
has made a report to the Secretary of
State, in which he recommends that
some means be taken to protect it from
the vandals, who have already been at
work, and have ruined the monument
by chipping off large chunks from the
corners. The Colonel says the iron
fence is sufficient protection against
grown people, for the gate is kept
locked; but small boys squeeze through
between the iron pickets, and, with
hammers and hatchets, break the corn
ers off and sell them as relics to visitors.
He says the agent at the railway station
told him that only the day before he ar
rived two well-dressed ladies appeared
with large pieces of the stone, which
they said they had hired a boy to chip
off for them. The way to circumyent
the vandals is to hire men to stay on
the place and watch all who come.-M
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